The citadel was safe.
Patrolled by the best trained in Kjeldor, the skies watched by the eagle eyes of the Femeref archers, mages keeping an eye out for magic attacks in various towers, the citadel was virtually impenetrable. Certainly no one in recent history had ever breached it, not the irritating and chaotic goblins who had this strange insistence on trying to swarm the citadel to no avail, not the Cephalids through the aqueducts protected by allied merfolk, not the strangely far reaching Cabal whose grasp in this region was tenuous at best, not even the infernal Dauthi with their irritating ability to bypass all but the thickest walls.
White light flashed on one of the wide, flat rooftops. A young woman dressed casually in a simple one piece white cotton dress with a gold cord about the waist faced off against a grizzled aven who looked like he'd seen his share of battles. A snarl escaped the jaws of the large, slightly transparent sphinx crouched in attack pose in front of the aven, glaring down the young woman.
Wind whipped through the young woman's silken blonde hair, the sun kissing it gold. She raised a delicate, pale hand imperiously. A surge of power sang through her, and formed before her two unicorns, their pearl hides and alicorns gleaming brightly in the evening sun. Her hand described a neat arc as she brough it down from high above her head to a little out to her side, sparks of mana still dancing around her fingers. Even as she was doing that her other hand extended towards the sphinx, white magic rolling off her soft palm like water out of a fountain.
The sphinx, poised to attack, froze in place.
The aven smiled. Extending his wings slightly, he wove a pattern in the air with his hands. Phantasmic avens appeared, as corporeal as fog, around the hapless sphinx.
The unicorns, on a mental command from their mistress, bolted forward with their heads down. Two of the four phantasmal avens stepped forward to meet the charge. There was a brief flash of ultraviolet light and both unicorns staggered backwards. One went down immediately without a sound, the other screamed in pain and fear before dropping to its knees. It hung its head, and both melted like mist before the sun.
"Your control has improved," the aven said, folding his muscled arms across his broad chest. "Although you still have a way to go." His was more of a smirk than a smile. The young woman found him easy enough to read, having known him for most of her life. It was a well known fact - around these parts anyway - that it was almost impossible for an aven to smile without looking decidedly predatory. They were raptors after all.
Princess Sianha brushed a few strands of flaxen gold that had escaped the tight braid she sported back behind her ear, casually wiping away a few droplets of sweat in the process. "It's a way I will have to go swiftly, then," she said, her voice commanding and regal, something she had quickly picked up from her father. "Did you see the sky last night?"
"I saw it," Commander Moloc nodded, knowing exactly what she was talking about.
"It's begun, hasn't it." It was more a statement, less a question.
"It may be a freak occurrence," the aven smirked. "We shall have to wait for the next sign. Show yourself, Tiyane."
The princess did a double take, Moloc had appended the sentence so casually she had almost missed it.
The girl stepped soundlessly into view from behind a pillar.
"You wanted?" Tiyane was young and very small considering what she was. Near-black skin was almost visible beneath a layer of very fine white fur with a striking pattern of slender chocolate stripes. Long hair of a darker shade was caught back in a simple plait that hung down to the small of her back. Her mostly human face sported large, unmistakable cat-like ears that faced forward by default but had the same freedom of movement. She was dressed for the occasion in loose, flowing white pants and a simple tunic top. Her odd feline eyes, coloured like an angry storm in ever changing hues of grey-blue, dark purple and black, missed very little. Behind her a slender tail thrashed in obvious annoyance.
Princess Sianha drew herself up to her full height. "You will address the Commander in the proper manner," she said haughtily.
Tiyane sullenly folded lightly muscled arms across a well toned stomach.
Commander Moloc chuckled. "It's all right, Your Highness. Come here, Tiyane."
Reluctantly, the girl left the shelter afforded by the mighty pillar and approached human and aven in a steady, casual lope. She paused in the aven's long shadow and raised her head slightly, looking more up with her eyes.
"Did you see it?" Moloc inquired simply.
"Yes," came the response.
"What did you make of it?"
"It was a bad moon on the wrong night. What you want me to make of it?"
"Have you not ever listened to the old tales?" the princess snapped irritably. Her annoyance at having a stupid peasant - not just any stupid peasant but a bastard mongrel that had somehow managed to breach the tight security of the citadel - in her presence was painfully obvious.
"I'm usually...busy...about the time the storytellers start," the younger girl said without so much as casting a glance at the irate princess. She seemed equally unhappy at being in the citadel in the presence of the princess, although it was more of a projected feeling than a blatant appearance.
"Please, your Highness, calm yourself," Moloc said, his slightly raspy voice as gentle as he could make it. "Feel up to more work Tiyane?"
Tiyane snorted disdainfully, shifting her weight more onto one foot. Her hitherto expressionless face set into a glare, her blue-grey eyes shifting subtley into a deep shade of purple-black. "Like I have a choice."
Moloc smiled. This time there was a very definite, very deliberate cruel edge to it. Tiyane's lip curled slightly, the barest flash of teeth showing.
"That's the spirit," Moloc's voice had a slight taunt in it. "I want you to find out who cast that bad moon and why."
"You're becoming predictable, Moloc," Tiyane's voice was as soft and deadly as a spider's kiss. "It might get you killed."
"Is that a threat Tiyane?" the aven returned. His sharp eyes picked out her extended claws.
"More a statement although it could become one."
"I'll keep that in mind. Report back when you have the information. Within a reasonable time of course."
"Of course." Tiyane shook her head, then suddenly broke into a loping run, heading straight for the edge of the roof. She waved a hand without breaking stride, white light flared briefly and vanished, leaving in its wake a pale grey shadow of a pegasus, the only thing really clear about it a pair of lustrous, angry looking black eyes.
Springing lightly, Tiyane easily cleared the short distance between the edge of the roof and the pegasus, landing on both feet on its shoulders. She dropped very rapidly into a crouch and from there into a riding position, her hands already twining into the foamy mist that served as the shadow pegasus' mane. The pegasus lashed its wings and rose vertically, quickly becoming lost to the sight of princess and aven as it flew into the sun.
"For the life of me," Moloc smirked, "I have no idea how she does that."
"Does what?" Sianha turned to him, a look of mild confusion colouring her pretty face. She glanced again in the general direction the commoner and the pegasus had last headed. "She summoned a pegasus and made a showy exit. A feat that could be performed by anyone with enough skill, Commander Moloc."
Moloc chuckled, the edges of his beak clacking together. "You must have noticed, your Highness, that that was no ordinary pegasus." Casually he waved a hand in the air, murmuring under his breath. A shrill whinny cut the air beside him, and a very large, very well muscled male pegasus burst into existance in a white, near blinding flash. It bore built in head armour, ridiculously hard dermal plates on its head, with a couple of spikes protruding from brow and just above sensitive nose. It trilled again, softer this time. Its large hoofs struck sparks on the stone of the roof.
Moloc gestured with his other hand, continuing to murmur softly. Another ebb of light arose, this one more gentle and rising slowly in power. It didn't reach nearly blinding proportions, choosing instead to remain merely bright. It cleared itself up relatively quickly, leaving in its stead a slightly smaller pegasus, more graceful and slender of form, and without the head armour.
"These are the only two known breeds of pegasus in Dominaria," explained the aven, gesturing to his two summoned, "Although I have witnessed Tiyane calling upon them many a time, more often than not I have seen her summon strange pegasi like the one she rode away on."
"She could be summoning them from another plane," Sianha shrugged. She then fixed the aven commander in her steely blue gaze. "Why do you deal with her anyway? She's a lowly commoner."
"She's very good at getting things I can't acquire through any other channels," the aven commander replied with a mysterious smile.
"Such as?" Sianha pressed.
Moloc chuckled again. "You'll learn soon, your Highess, that some things are better left in the dark."